More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)

Hellfire Club

Deliberately outrageous fraternity of the mid-18C which met from time to time among the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, a 13C Cistercian monastery near Marlow in Buckinghamshire. The 'Medmenham monks' were believed to indulge in Rabelaisian orgies; certainly they parodied Roman Catholic ritual. John *Wilkes, a guest, alarmed the company during one such mock service by releasing a baboon, which was briefly mistaken by some of the participants for the devil in person.